Cooking 101 #12/52 Chicken Enchiladas

Chicken Enchiladas!  Well, it was worth a shot.  Wasn't wild with the results this time.  Just not a recipe that worked for me, taste wise.  I will give these a try some other time with a completely different recipe.

Cooking 101 #11/52 Hamburger BBQ

Sunday was my day for cooking this week.  And I mean the whole day.  I started off with a nice breakfast.  Skillet fried potatoes, onions, and garlic along with scrambled eggs, cheese, and salsa in a tortilla wrap.  No pics of that one as it wasn't my official project meal, it was a breakfast I've tossed together a few times before.

For dinner it was sloppy joes (or hamburger barbecue, as I prefer calling it) and a tossed salad.  Nothing fancy, but it was a new recipe.  Normally hamburger BBQ starts with ketchup and mustard and you go from there to make it your own.  This one called for soy sauce, no mustard.  I was worried but Michelle and I both thought it was one of the best versions we have had.  Simple recipe, minimal mess, minimal time to make.  Give it a try!

Here is the recipe, if you're interested!

Cooking 101 #10/52 Cowboy Grilled Chicken

Today's recipe was.... borrowed... from an old dinner at Ruby Tuesday's.  Years ago they had a meal call "Cowboy Grills Chicken" that was blackened chicken over garlic potatoes with steamed carrots, broccoli  and cauliflower and breaded onion straws.  It was my favorite meal there and I've rarely been back since it was dropped from the menu.   Michelle recreated this at home for me when we found they had removed it.

Our version is nearly identical except we use Durkee Fried Onions in place of the onion straws.  Not much of a recipe here to offer other than to say that I use Rick's Ragin Cajun rub to make the chicken.  Came out great!  Getting better at timing various items so they all finish together.

Cooking 101 #9/52 Stir Fry

Week #9 and I decided to go into a new area.  Oriental this time.  Stir fry.  But again I had to make sure this was mostly homemade.  Fresh veggies? Check. Homemade sauce?  Check.   There ya go!  So, fresh broccoli, cauliflower and carrots.  Frozen sugar snap peas for Michelle.  All steamed until tender.  Chicken fried until just browning.  Mixed the chicken and veggies, added the sauce (recipe below), then presented for serving along with rice (fried until lightly browned, steamed with chicken broth).  It was good, but as seems to be the trend, it could have used a bit more spice.

Stir Fry Sauce

Cooking 101 #8/52 Chicken Cordon Bleu

Week number eight's meal was Chicken Cordon Bleu.  This was a simple recipe, ingredient-wise.  This was, however, my least successful recipe to date.  That was due to a lack of a perfect thinning of the chicken... one of the breasts split a bit and was nearly impossible to keep rolled during cooking.  The one in the picture came out pretty well though.  This also was a rather bland recipe.  If I try this meal again I would choose a different recipe to use.  Even so, it was good.  Both Michelle and I found the results acceptable, although just not interesting enough to repeat without modification.

Chicken Cordon Bleu Recipe

Cooking 101 #7 Valentine's Day (Crab Cakes)

Valentine's Day weekend is here.  With how busy Michelle and I have been I wanted to make sure I did something special for her this weekend.  But also with how busy we've been and due to the fact that we are trying to save money for our addition, I knew I couldn't go big on spending. So I started looking for a special dinner I could cook this weekend.  Well, Michelle loves seafood but I am not a huge fan.  I only eat saltwater seafood and rarely find shellfish to my liking.  But for this weekend I decided to go for it.  Crab cakes!

The whole menu consisted of an Asian influenced salad with field greens, chick peas, green onions, strawberries, garlic-ginger wonton strips, and a sesame-ginger dressing.  Next were the crab cakes along with Parmesan fries. Finally followed up with a white cake with butter cream frosting.  Michelle was pleasantly surprised by the menu and the results.  And yes, I managed to eat the crab cakes as well.  Definitely not my favorite meal so far, but that was a consequence of the ingredients, not the preparation.

Of course, the cake prep was and adventure in itself, trying to get it made in advance while Michelle was at work.  Quite a challenge to bake and frost a cake in just a few hours while watching a two year old when you are not familiar with most of the processes!

Here are the recipes:
Crab Cakes
Parmesan Fries
White Cake

Cooking 101 #6/52 Pizza

Pizza sauce and dough made form scratch.  The dough was assembled last night, allowed to rise overnight in the fridge, then stretched into shape tonight.  The resulting crust was good, but not spectacular.  Might have been better if it was made on a stone instead of a pan.  The sauce wasn't my favorite, a bit too sweet for me but Michelle loved it.  I'd definitely give this recipe another chance, possibly with a few modifications.

Here's the recipe.